Rust control on machine tables

| They are made of spruce and canvas. Both can rot.

Some are wood, although aluminum and chrome-moly steel are probably more common these days - and a high-grade Dacron (either bonded to Mylar or treated with a gel coating for slickness and waterproofing) seem to be the skins of choice. UV is a greater threat to the skin than water.

On the other hand, stainless pop rivets are a popular fastener and I've never quite become comfortable with that.

The wood construction planes I've seen around my shop have all been dry and rot-free under their skin. I can't recall seeing bare, unprotected wood on any of them; but I don't know what's used. I'll have to ask.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

I haven't seen any heavy jets made from spruce and canvas, have you? Can you post pictures?

snip.

I have used automatic transmission fluid mixed with about 25% kerosene with good results, then a bit of paste wax from time to time.

Barry Lennox

I think that you will find that the only canvas used in aircraft is as seat upholstery and maybe some interior trim. It's way heavy as a covering material.

In any case, there are very few aircraft in current production which are made with wooden structure, and no commercial airliners--airliners used to be mostly aluminum structure but advanced composites are being used now to some extent.